This invention relates to the manufacture of furniture, and particularly to the manufacture of inexpensive but high quality cabinets, such as television and stereo consoles having three dimensional configurations on both their fronts and sides. In the past, such cabinets have usually been made of separate pieces of wood which are jointed and glued together. More recently, developments in plastic molding and finishing techniques have permitted the cabinet components to be made of plastic face laminates which are then glued or screwed to each other. Generally, the exteriors are formed of thin plastic shells which are deep drawn by vacuum thermoforming techniques so as to include very fine details such as wood graining which can be finished to give the appearance of fine wood. The joining operation is quite time consuming. Although it is well known in the furniture art that materials such as plywood, for example, can be gently bent by cutting a series of closely spaced slots in the back surface, placing glue in the slots, and then holding the face surface against a template while the glue sets, this operation is also time consuming.